In the town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, Huckleberry Finn, a poor boy with an absent alcoholic father, and his friend Tom Sawyer, a middle-class boy with an active imagination, find a robber’s stash of gold and gain a lot of money. When Pap, Huck’s alcoholic and brutish father, comes back into town and attempts, but fails to take the money, Pap steals Huck away to a cabin across the river. After suffering abuse and beatings from his father while being kidnapped, Huck fakes his death and runs away to Jackson’s Island, where he finds Miss Watson’s slave, Jim. The two pair up and capture a raft and begin a series of adventures and mishaps down the Mississippi River. After Jim is sold away by acquaintances they met on the journey, Huck decides
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Tom and Huck devise a master plan to free Jim, yet after it all fails Tom reveals that Jim has actually been free since’s Miss Watson’s death two months prior. This novel commonly sparks controversy because it led children in a negative direction by challenging authority and religion. It also sparks conflict because the use of the N-word, “nigger”, 219 times. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses Huck to characterize how a young boy’s innocence and morality take precedence over society’s prejudices. In chapter 31, Huck’s climax and pivotal moment as a character occurs when he rips up the letter he was writing to inform Miss Watson where Jim was. While Tom Sawyer is not present, Huck individually makes decisions based on his own morality. In chapter 31, Huck is contemplating how Jim can return. Huck recalled when Jim “said [he] was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now”, so Huck decided he “would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery”(Twain …show more content…
Although during chapter 32 and through the end of the book, Twain uses Tom to symbolize the mistreatment and selfishness of society that leads other characters, individuals, to acknowledge Jim as a human being. After Jim brought Tom to the doctor, the men were being rough and the doctor stood up for him by saying, “Don’t be no rougher on him than you’re obleeged to, because he ain’t a bad n——-… I never see a n——- that was a better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, and was all tired out, too, and I see plain enough he’d been worked main hard lately. I liked the n——- for that”(Twain 284-285). The doctor believed because of the way Jim cared and risked his freedom for Tom, he was a kind person. Although, society depicts slaves as inhumane and worthy of mistreatment, this Doctor felt Jim was worthy of being treated properly. Jim cared for Tom, although he knew Tom would not do the same. Tom’s selfishness is clearly evident when he admits that he knew Jim was a free man all along, and when Aunt Sally asked him why he would go through the trouble then, he replies, “Why, I wanted the adventure of it; and I’d a waded neck-deep in blood to—goodness alive”(Twain 289). The lack of humility for Jim is portrayed through Tom’s insincerity to Jim’s
Tom and Huck devise a master plan to free Jim, yet after it all fails Tom reveals that Jim has actually been free since’s Miss Watson’s death two months prior. This novel commonly sparks controversy because it led children in a negative direction by challenging authority and religion. It also sparks conflict because the use of the N-word, “nigger”, 219 times. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses Huck to characterize how a young boy’s innocence and morality take precedence over society’s prejudices. In chapter 31, Huck’s climax and pivotal moment as a character occurs when he rips up the letter he was writing to inform Miss Watson where Jim was. While Tom Sawyer is not present, Huck individually makes decisions based on his own morality. In chapter 31, Huck is contemplating how Jim can return. Huck recalled when Jim “said [he] was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he’s got now”, so Huck decided he “would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery”(Twain …show more content…
Although during chapter 32 and through the end of the book, Twain uses Tom to symbolize the mistreatment and selfishness of society that leads other characters, individuals, to acknowledge Jim as a human being. After Jim brought Tom to the doctor, the men were being rough and the doctor stood up for him by saying, “Don’t be no rougher on him than you’re obleeged to, because he ain’t a bad n——-… I never see a n——- that was a better nuss or faithfuller, and yet he was risking his freedom to do it, and was all tired out, too, and I see plain enough he’d been worked main hard lately. I liked the n——- for that”(Twain 284-285). The doctor believed because of the way Jim cared and risked his freedom for Tom, he was a kind person. Although, society depicts slaves as inhumane and worthy of mistreatment, this Doctor felt Jim was worthy of being treated properly. Jim cared for Tom, although he knew Tom would not do the same. Tom’s selfishness is clearly evident when he admits that he knew Jim was a free man all along, and when Aunt Sally asked him why he would go through the trouble then, he replies, “Why, I wanted the adventure of it; and I’d a waded neck-deep in blood to—goodness alive”(Twain 289). The lack of humility for Jim is portrayed through Tom’s insincerity to Jim’s